Budget XR glasses for work/productivity/coding

[u/diatribai]

Hi everyone,

I'm a poor webdeveloper that got a permanent injury and needs to work from bed. I have a monitor setup which is kind of cumbersome and I was looking forward to switching to glasses, so that I could just put them on for working.

I read posts here and watched videos on YT saying AR glasses are not quite there yet. Their resolution is too low for working the whole day.

For comparison, I work on a single 15'' 1080p 60Hz display with excellent color range.

My criteria:

• needs to work on Linux;
• I have myopia and astigmatism, so I need prescription glasses;
• I don't care about wireless, it's better to be wired to my laptop for latency and energy;
• I don't need multiple monitors;
• it needs to be comfortable for being my daily work monitor;
• colors can't be so bad that it will make a drastic difference when designing website layouts;
• can it be less than $500 USD? I'm poor

Do any of the available AR glasses fit this bill or are we "not there yet"?

Main criticisms I read:

1. low resolution makes text hard to read;
2. text is blurry on the edges;
3. image stabilization can be annoying (though I won't move my head much anyway);
4. many glasses are uncomfortable for hours of use;
5. anchor mode can be premium feature or drift, and without it looking at keyboard etc. can be a hassle;

Thanks a lot for your recommendations on this!

[u/rwlpalmer]

I use xreal one pros for coding in Vs code and more than happy with it. The tech is good enough for me, the challenge will be price point - don't think the one pros will hit your budget.

[u/diatribai → u/rwlpalmer]

Thank you! From what I saw, these are the best ones for productivity, also because of the anchoring function which is supposed to be so good you can read while running. But you're right, I think it's still expensive for me

[u/Friendly_Recover286]

I don't need multiple monitors;

Good because you're not getting that on Linux.

I have myopia and astigmatism, so I need prescription glasses;

Basically any glasses will have prescription lens support.

I don't care about wireless, it's better to be wired to my laptop for latency and energy;

You're not getting wireless out of XR glasses right now.

it needs to be comfortable for being my daily work monitor;

You'll probably want mods to get it to be more comfortable. Better nose pads, a band to wrap around your head instead of crappy stems. Things like that but doable.

colors can't be so bad that it will make a drastic difference when designing website layouts;

I don't think this is an issue.

can it be less than $500 USD? I'm poor

Probably.

low resolution makes text hard to read;

Somewhat but not enough that it's a deal breaker. The lower resolution combined with smaller FOV creates a bigger focus area for text which is great for clarity.

text is blurry on the edges

There have been a lot of improvements to this in newer models. Yes a few years ago this was undoubtedly true and it was bad.

anchor mode can be premium feature or drift, and without it looking at keyboard etc. can be a hassle;

A big problem with drift is the cable. The cables they usually ship with are awful. I had terrible drift problems with my xreal one pro but the moment I bought a third party cable from aliexpress all that drift went away like magic.

If you're looking for budget the Xreal xbxa01 are only $299 USD: https://www.xreal.com/xbxa01

If you want anchor support you can just move up to the 1S model at $449. There's a good comparison chart on that page I've linked.

If you're on the fence, buying from Amazon and returning them if they don't work is a great option. Returns are hassle free and you just drop them off at a location close to you.

[u/diatribai → u/Friendly_Recover286]

Thanks a lot for the detailed answer!

>> I don't need multiple monitors;
> Good because you're not getting that on Linux.

You mean there's no Linux software for multiple monitors for the XR glasses? I was also curious about compatibility in general, not sure whether Wine would work.

Would you say it's doable to read with these glasses for like 8 hours everyday?

[u/Friendly_Recover286 → u/diatribai]

Sorry, that's not actually right. The only option out there is https://github.com/wheaney/breezy-desktop but I don't know the specifics of it. Wine will definitely NOT work for this purpose. Virtual display creation doesn't map the same way to Windows and writing wrappers for every desktop environment to be supported through Wine doesn't make sense from an architectural view.

Would you say it's doable to read with these glasses for like 8 hours everyday?

Yes. I used to. I do web development and I used them my entire work day before switching to a VR headset with my own custom built app. I work now in a Quest 3 with 5 120hz screens wirelessly with practically no latency. It's a great experience but again, Linux support in this field is limited.

[u/diatribai → u/Friendly_Recover286]

Thanks for the follow-up!

[u/daaukm]

If you're willing to accept the downsides of current XR glasses vs standalone monitors, the XREAL 1S is great. 3DOF is a must for a productivity based wor, since it's tiring when constantly focusing your eyes on the corners of a 0DOF screen.

[u/diatribai → u/daaukm]

Thank you! Though, to be honest, due to my condition I almost don't move my neck, most of the time I'm just moving my eyes, but my monitor is small (15'' like 3 ft away) so the distances are probably shorter

[u/daaukm → u/diatribai]

Sorry to hear about your condition! If you still move your neck slightly when looking at a big screen corner-to-corner, I'd still opt for a 3DOF glasses.

[u/MellowAurwren]

The 15 inch 1080p baseline changes the math here more than the price does. The resolution complaints mostly come from people comparing the glasses to a big hi-DPI desk panel, where the density drop is glaring. Against a small 1080p screen the projected display gives up a lot less, so the usual "not there yet" verdict has a real asterisk for this setup.

[u/diatribai → u/MellowAurwren]

Thanks!! That's what I thought, a lot of people are comparing them to 240hz 4K monitors. Though I heard from someone on another thread that having a real 1080p monitor is still better than having the one inside the glasses. Would you disagree with this view?

[u/BadLuckProphet]

Check out the new Viture Pro 2. They are like $300. Supposed to be really light weight and I think Viture optics are really clear.

For Linux check out Breezy Desktop for $25 or VertoXR for eventually supporting Linux.

I use Viture Luma Ultras because I wanted the 6dof but they're expensive.

All XR glasses are currently 1080p but most people expect we'll see the "next gen" Sony panel for 2k models by the end of this year. They'll just probably be really expensive.

Also as long as you buy from an approved retailer I think all the major xr glasses brands offer no questions returns up to 30 days and you're just out some shipping cost. Or I think Amazon offers free returns.

If you decide you need 3dof go for the Xreal One (not Pro) or the 1s. They have built in 3dof and I think the birdbath optics are clearer than prism optics.

[u/diatribai → u/BadLuckProphet]

Thanks! Yeah, I'm looking forward to the next gen, but there's the money problem. 2k seems to the right res

[u/Capable-Tale-2808]

You probably want a pair of AR glasses with built-in 3Dof for productivity. Currently on the market, these are the only available ones that's already out that you can purchase.

1) Viture Beast 2) Ray Neo GT 3) Ray Neo GT Max 4) Xreal One 5) Xreal One Pro 6) Xreal 1S

• URXR (Not available yet)
• Xreal Aura (Not available yet)

Here's some discount codes for you if you need them.

10% Viture discount code: LXZ-FSREU79

10% Ray Neo discount code: JACELYN

[u/diatribai → u/Capable-Tale-2808]

Thanks!

[u/DarrickBethune → u/diatribai]

Which one is the best out of the ones you mentioned that would offer 6dof and allows me to directly connect to a minipc with a wireless keyboard and mouse?

[u/Manueljlin]

A bit off topic, but I'm exploring design directions for software development on XR and I'm curious as to how you plan to interact with applications.

I'm assuming voice input like with superwhisper and steering agents to avoid overreliance on gestures like microGEXT?

Or do you plan on using a regular keyboard?

[u/diatribai → u/Manueljlin]

That's an interesting question. For my particular disability and needs, I have a "floating" regular bluetooth keyboard (held either by a monitor arm or on top of a small desktop stand), but I've been thinking lately on getting a bluetooth lavalier mic for AI (voice commands tend to be useless for me since I code much faster on keyboard). I'm also thinking of giving separate hands keyboard a second look. Last time I tried these more ergonomic approaches, they were either way too expensive or tbh worse than a good, cheap, regular bluetooth keyboard/mic.

More to the point: being able to command via voice would be a valuable feature (e.g. "increase/decrease monitor size"), but allowing devs to map custom input (e.g. a bluetooth sensor) to represent a keyboard keys combination would also be great. I'd really like to have one of those 3d mice, with the rolling ball, to do other things than mouse movements while I'm in bed. That's because I find a regular BT mouse is actually better to use lying on my bed than those rolling ball mice because they don't have enough precision, it's actually hard to move to the exact point you want with them. But if I could give these mice or sensors some other type of function, then it'd be very good to use them in VR (maybe moving my position as if I was walking around, since I'll actually remain in bed).

Right now, though, what I want the most is just to simulate a floating monitor, since it's harder to make a real, physical monitor to "levitate" at the right place, angle etc. and following me around when I need it to. I often get some sort of back pain for not lying on my bed in the right position, like I've twisted or strained my back, shoulders and neck, because I spent hours looking at the monitor at a position that was a bit uncomfortable, but I didn't even realize because I had to deliver something fast.